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Comments
Look on the bright side. At least this one has an LLC, so he won't be personally financially ruined by the experience beyond the shit that's already hit the fan.
I don't understand why on earth you wouldn't do the basic numbers before starting a business or making an offer. Of course, knowing those numbers would scare away a lot of low end hosts...
Although it looks like he made a mistake on filing his LLC which could result in his LLC status being revoked. Hopefully he fixes it soon to protect himself.
make terrible business decision and blame it to Chinese, way to go man.
I'm also going throw this out there for current and future providers, it's perfectly acceptable to ASK FOR HELP. Most LET providers don't mind helping other providers out. Hell, I'm always reaching out to @AnthonySmith and @Francisco for help on solving problems even after doing this for 7+ years.
If you won't ask for help because you see other LET providers as competitors, you're missing out on some amazing resources that can make you (and the industry) better.
Gotta say, the positions ServerHand find itself into sucks.
I currently have a project that is at a loss, for quite some time. I keep funding it just because it was my mistake... but I can sympatize with ServerHand.
I also know another company that recently closed shop because they were sellign lifetime licenses with access to updates/upgrades and new products.
This company actually had clients, on their forums, telling them they would agree to have their licenses updated to yearly licenses instead but the company decided to just sell their assets instead.
But I don't think ServerHand will be this lucky.
I'm not sure what the issue is. Did they not math things from the get go or is it a case of "quick we got sales, turn up the nodes" and got caught off guard? I'm not sure how this screw up can happen. Why is it so hard to bust out a calculator or a spreadsheet to break this down?
I have cut down how much I help other providers a lot over the years. I have a small group of providers I'll help.
Francisco
Some people are in violation of the agreement, why do you have to deal with others?
We're willing to help out. If any of your customers want to be transferred over we can try to honor as much of the package specifications as possible (with the same renewal cost.) We just won't be able to do the E3 cores, IPv6, or DDoS mitigation in some locations. Everything else seems fine (the locations, KVM, SSD, etc.)
i habe recieve the letter too ~
so ~ my vps become what?????
so your company automagically on sale ?
the true power of Black Friday, and LET.
you owe your client money, just refund their money. I thing pro-rate acceptable
Wow, I completely didn't notice "dramastic" before. That is awesome.
people from all over the world do chargebacks,
it is your unplanned (bad) sale strategy lead to this unpleasant outcome, and still, blaming Chinese for bulk ordering when you do not have that much capacity in stock.
Should not you just remove the order page when you know there is not enough stocks,
or you just love to see your paypal balance jumps higher from the Chinese buying?
@serverhand Just send your customers a happy new year card stating that because of the cold winter (which is act of God, by the way), you've made a donation to your local cathouse in their name instead. The card picture should be one of dollars on some nice lady breasts, while she is lying on top of a red Santa cape. Change the ToS as needed. Oh yeah, perhaps you should have waited for some more from black friday for the paypal buyer protection to expire.
@virmach Appreciate the offer. If you're on Discord, hit me up and I'll fill you in.
Seems to me that they didn't bother making the math because they didn't expect for more than just a few signups and if those ended up pushing them to a loss, they wouldn't bother much funding that loss. Thing is, they got a lot more orders than what they can operate at a loss.
So I guess the answer is lack of planning for the "just in case..".
I doubt they'll make the same mistake again.
As for their solution... I feel for them but unless the loss pushes them to closing doors (as it seems to be the case), they should eat it. But that's me saying, money is not my main driver.
Also what it seems to be to me, but surely in that case just list the stock as how many you can actually serve.
I feel for them too but that first email and response just seemed bait and switch. Hope they sort things out
Two different emails, written by two different people. Don't worry, things will be worked out. No need to panic.
Just read the whole dramastic™ thread. Bad business decision is bad business decision, don't try to blame your customers for purchasing your services. You didn't set the correct stock count so the drama began, and if you can't deliver just refund then problem solved.
Buuut if you both won't deliver and not refund, then why can't the customer seek help from paypal's buyer protection? For many reasons, good, bad, sometimes ridiculous, some Chinese buyers often turn to dispute without talking to the provider, which is indeed a bad habit and needs to be improved/corrected the sooner/faster/more the better, but in your case, this is definitely not the issue. Every customer deserves the right to protect himself/herself if there's a legitimate reason, and from the reading of this thread, it's obvious that there will surely be one if the problem doesn't get properly handled soon.
Kudos @Virmach for offering to take over the clients, this is the true LET spirit.
Nice, let's hope so.
I think I will put up a tutorial on how not to act if you wish to "enter the market". Also some tips for various situations that WILL happen. Maybe we make it a collaborative work. Who knows, maybe I will have the time...
Just start a different company. This is just stupid. I wouldn't put money on a company that gives a offer they can't even support that's not even one month into a yearly plan.
If this thread only had @rhys along with @Francisco and @wss it would remind me of American Gladiator's Gauntlet... too bad....
Well, the second email (see above, which I also have just received) sounds more optimistic, and I'd prefer to remain as optimistic as possible.
I think that this thread has been useful to ServerHand (despite a number of doomsday comments), at least in the sense that trying to avoid massive charge-backs should have become a high priority for them now.
I see your best choices as:
declare bankruptcy and find another line of business
refund your customers - every one of them on the service you have to shut down even if you have to borrow to do so
continue to offer the services, cull every one that breaches TOS and give them a full refund so no chargebacks and find a way to make all new business profitable
and learn from the experience.
how many clients are effected by this ? @ServerHand
Still waiting for my serverhand dallas offer.
I was unhappy when Dacentec terminated their low-cost VPN plans before the end of their yearly term but they refunded the entire yearly payment and actually did send the amount to my paypal account - that's a very classy way to do a termination like this.
I am not terminating any yearly services from anyone from LET. Please submit a ticket if you got an email today and you are a LET user. Include your LET username and I'll mark spredsheet. This will free up capacity, I will cancel the servers and refund the people that I AM cancelling.. it is not directed at LET members and this whole situation was not caused by anyone at LET. It's not even really LET-caused..